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6moons review of FAB Audio Model 1 speaker

Fellow Audiogoners,
Have you ever read a review of a component you own and end up shaking your head in disbelief at what you've just read? This is the situation I find myself in after reading a Steve Marsh review on 6moons of the FAB Audio Model 1 high efficiency speaker (http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/fabaudio/model1.html).

It's probably natural to feel defensive about a product you own which got a mixed or bad review but in this case there are some serious doubts about the reviewer's attitude, equipment and room challenges. Here are my beefs thus far:

* It seems to me that the author didn't get along very well with Jim Fabian, FAB's owner, and as such had a proponderence to be critical rather than neutral in his review. His negativity is illustrated by the fact that he felt compelled to tell the readers about Jim's reluctance to answer some questions that would reveal proprietary info (would he have asked the same questions to DALI or Focal-JM Labs company owners?) and then mentioned that Jim did answer the question but so quietly as if to keep the reviewer from hearing Jim's answer, he mentioned Jim's desire to quickly leave, and that Jim made a 'parting shot' about suggesting he upgrade his NAD CDP which made him feel embarassed.
* If the reviewer is a credible audiophile, then why did he seem to rely heavily upon his audiophile friends for their opinions?
* He spend a disproportionate amount of text space writing
about the negative attributes of the speaker rather than
equal time with its positive traits. He also spend a
disproportionate amount of time listening to the 'upstairs'
system of no-name components rather than equal time with
the 'downstairs' higher-end system.
* If the speakers are room placement sensitive and as
revealing as we owners of them know them to be, then the fact that there were some sound issues is more a statement about Steve's room and system shortcomings; The speakers are a window into his room and upstream components, which isn't a speaker shortcoming. He obviously didn't see it that way prefering the sound of his vintage JBL speakers that mask the shortcomings.
* What is a serious reviewer doing using Radio Shack speaker cables and a NAD CD player for reviewing top quality gear? I even found out that one of the speaker connections on his amp was corroded! These facts should speak volumes about the lack of credible equipment used by the reviewer and his testing approach.

The speakers natural sound, when connected to proper gear, and set up properly in a decent room, astonishes and sucks the listener into the soundstage. I'm afraid Steve Marsh missed the boat on this review. Hind sight what it is, I'd guess that Jim might have pulled his speakers from the review process once he got to Steve's home and saw the home brew of assorted old components and home made speaker cables etc.

Thanks for your efforts Steve Marsh but I don't share your negative review of the FAB Audio Model 1 speaker. To each his own . . .
kevinzoe

Showing 1 response by kevinzoe

kevinzoe OP
167 posts
 
Thanks everyone for your viewpoints, all very interesting.
Shiva - you raise a very valid point about how a bad review could sink resale value - good thing I'm planning on keeping my Model 1s.
Opalchip - you raise too many good points to single out individually.
Miklorsmith - yes, it is refreshing to see that a negative review can and will be published which helps preserve our "trust" in the reviewers.

I don't mean to sound like a poor sport because frankly the review doesn't impact me at all and I have no vested interest in FAB AUDIO aside from being a customer. And as some of you have said, as long as the speakers work for me then who cares . . .!? While it does come across that the reviewer did everything he could to fix the problem - so cudos to him for spending the energy & time with what he had at his disposal - it just doesn't seem fair to use gear that is in a very different league than the speakers are to judge the speakers and then perscibe the sound problem as being speaker related. Taking an extreme example to make my point, would you use an Apple iPod as a sound source to judge very expensive speakers like the Wilson Audio Grand Slam or MAXX speakers? Of course not; most people's systems have components which are all fairly close to being at the same quality level (however you define quality). So if Jim from FAB Audio had brought along an amp and cables and CDP etc. and if the reviewer let him insert it then the outcome might have been very different. Chances are though that the reviewer wouldn't be familiar with Jim's equipment so most likely would have rejected the notion of using it.

Lets do the audio industry justice by providing a fair review to its readers by using upstream components/cables that are of the same quality of the component being evaluated.
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